Doug Hiser

Bewildering Stories biography

To tell the truth my life is a cartoon, funny, extravagant, creative, exciting and many of those “Coyote falls off the cliff and lands with a puff of dust at the bottom.” I am an author of twelve books, (Secret Grotto, Lost Oasis, Crow Canyon, etc.) a poetry slam winner and producer, a professional artist, a football, track and soccer coach in public schools, a retired mailman (that's another story) a public speaker at conferences and schools, and there is also a bunch of stuff I used to do, like, play every sport imaginable, competitive bodybuilder for about ten years, and in 1992 I was on the American Gladiators television show.

I have published many short stories and written over two hundred of those little gems. Some of my stories have won awards at writers’ conferences such as “Alligator Salesman,” "Montana Mist,” "Beetle,” "Last Kiss of the Cardboard Sign Man,” etc. I have poetry and art that has won numerous awards too. My website Art-Escape has a small art gallery and I also have a DVD of my artwork containing over one hundred pieces in six categories. I have produced many book and CD covers along with murals, illustrations and logos.

The best place to find a few of my books is at Book Surge. My favorite inspiring authors are: Rick Bass, Joe Landsdale, Alice Hoffman, and Larry McMurtry among about a thousand others. I am from southern Texas and was born to catch cottonmouth water moccasin snakes and grab armadillos by the tail. I was Tarzan of Texas when I was a kid and I wore clothes only because they made me go to school. I would have rather been in a tree way out in some vast cow pasture climbing after an opossum than watching I Love Lucy or Hawaii 5-0.

I still like being out in the wilderness and exploring, except now it is in Costa Rica or Canada or the Florida Everglades. I can catch snakes and snapping turtles with my bare hands, paint and draw creative artwork, love my wife like she is my “air” and write stories that fill up the world with new sights, exotic words to thrill and emotional characters that hang around after the words are over.